Happy Birthday Matthew..

For Matthew's birthday we decided to do something spur of the moment. We went to Vegas to Mandalay Bay to the Shark Aquarium. The boys had a blast. Matthew thinks his little 10 gallon fish tank is too small now (that's what he got for his birthday)
They had a "touch" pool for different manta rays.


Of course we had to tag his car (even though it was raining)

I like these kind of surprises...

So I checked my mail today...there was a letter from a creative writting company. Apparently the teacher at Pine View High School submitted a poem that Matthew wrote last semester- and it has been chosen to be published. He has a chance to go register as a judge. The 10 finalist have a chance to win money. I don't know about that part- but I thought his poem was pretty good (I didn't even know he had written it. But what kid ever shows you all of the writting they have to do for homework?) So I am going to share it with you... and you can leave a comment about what you think.

Basketball

To be a basketball player,

You need to have a little bit of skill

You need to know the rules,

And how the game is played.

You need to know when to shoot,

And when to pass.

You never know which game will be your last

When you get older you will look back into the past.

You will remember all the fun times you had,

Even shooting in the driveway with your dad.

In the pros when you make your first shot,

You jumped up and down celebrating a lot

You will remember your coach's leadership

That took you to the championship.

When you look back all you will see

Is your memories.

Christmas

Christmas was fun at our house this year. The boys got rockband with a few other things. They were nice enough to include the parents in this fun game. They even went and created a band so all of us could play together. The name of our band "Bad Noise" Is that not appropriate or what? Both of the boys like to play guitar. Matthew got a cordless guitar for his birthday coming up (we just gave it to him early)
They have had a lot of fun. We had a great day!! Craig called about 3 in the afternoon. He got to talk to us about 40 minutes. He talked to everybody, and tried to catch up on everything that's happened since he left. He is doing great, and enjoying every minute of it.

Making the "PERFECT" Card

Matthew and Tyler want to send Craig the perfect Christmas card this year. (and can I just add- Craig HATES bling on his dog)
So... just to show Craig how well they are taking care of his dog...his brothers bought the dogs matching red dresses, and some shinny gold bling..

They even painted their nails. For the perfect "look". Now we just have to get his card in the mail. He will LOVE it!!

Elk Hunt

So last weekend Kary went hunting with Clay. The hiked all over and never saw a single elk. At one point during the day Clay fell down while they were walking, and found out later he had broken his ankle in two places. (it is not safe for them to go out together I guess) So after 3 or 4 trips he decides that today is his lucky day...
He went by himself because evrybody else was busy. Just as it got light he sees a cow elk and takes his shot. One shot and it drops. Then he sees about 50 more run out of his little canyon (that he didn't even know were there). He finds it very easy, and starts the fun part. Did you know that elk have about 6 times the amount of blood as a deer? It takes a little longer to do the dirty work. The fun started when he was trying to figure out how to get this huge thing back to the truck when he was alone. Lucky for him his 4 wheeler has a wench on the front. He hoisted the elk up with the wench, and very carefully manuvered the bike right underneath it. (of course you just got the easy version) After "skillfully" loading it in the truck, he was ready to head home. Thank goodness the guy at the meat processing plant knew the tricks to unload. But the best part is- HIS FIRST ELK IN 25 YEARS!!!!

Trip to the Man Store

After we dropped Craig off at the MTC the guys wanted to visit Cabelas. Matthew and Tyler had a blast. They kept circling back to look at this huge elk. It is the new state record. They bought a bunch of seasoning to make deer jerky while we were there. They are on the third batch since last Wednesday, and have gone through about 15 pounds of deer meat. I'm hoping that holds them over for at least 2 weeks (you never know with them)

Halloween Fun

Wow witches and Angels hanging out together. Emalee is cute!! (and my alter ego did come out for the night) I had a few people not recognize me.
Braden made a cute turtle. He didn't want Uncle Kary to put him down. Both kids thought the highlight was the trunk -r-treating they did with Uncle Kary and the boys.